BMW on Urban Mobility

Imagine urban traffic without the noise and the emissions. In 2030 this vision could be real. Dr. Eckhardt, Head of BMW's Center of Competence Urban Mobility works for solutions that facilitate urban mobility in the context of people, cities and technologies today and tomorrow. Dr. Eckhardt, where do you set your focus in work these days?

I am heading the CoC Urban Mobility and our mission is to cooperate with cities and their stakeholders to understand cities’ visions, ambitions, and constraints. We are convinced that sustainable urban mobility is beneficial for cities and us only at large scale. And our experiences show that scaling requires a public private initiative.

You are heading the Urban Mobility since January 2015. What is your most important achievement so far?

We discussed the general concept of cooperation and scaling with different cities and their stakeholders and obtained very positive feedback. We are now cooperating with three cities in order to jointly develop a detailed plan for implementation. Also, we are discussing the concept with more cities.

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For tomorrow’s smart cities, electric vehicles are considered to play a key role in stabilizing the grid. What are the coming milestones to accomplish a win-win situation?

The most important thing is to scale electric mobility. As a precondition we need to establish E-Alliances in each city to overcome the chicken-and-egg problem. The E-Alliance is a cooperation platform of civil servants, mobility providers, academia, and NGOs.

The major challenges posed by e-mobility center around improving home charging, expanding public infrastructure and supporting the electric power grid. How is BMW addressing these challenges?

Home charging is part of our 360° Electric portfolio which includes installation check-ups, installation, and a variety of wallboxes. We also stimulate investments in public charging infrastructure, directly by co-financing and indirectly by our more than 800 BMW i3 in all DriveNow fleets. The latter provides base-load demand for infrastructure operators. Last but not least BMW is engaged in energy services.

There are many case-studies for European cities to stimulate e-mobility. Is there any particular city that stakeholders should learn from?

The best example is Copenhagen. Arriva, the public transport operator, is operating a all-ellectric DriveNow fleet consisting of 400 BMW i3. EON has received government funds for installation of 640 charging points provided that EON can prove demand.

DriveNow is the ideal customer, and the coverage is more than 7 charging points per square kilometer of the business area. That is outstanding! This is a very good example not only for promoting electric mobility but also for multi- and intermodal integration.